


the room with a view

by merelywren (mrflannery)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-23 22:31:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4894768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrflannery/pseuds/merelywren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Agent Barton was pacing in Phil's office.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the room with a view

Agent Barton was pacing in Phil's office.

Phil stood in his doorway and watched the Agent for a few moments, taking in his agitated state. Barton couldn't keep his body still, stopping at both windows in the office to peek through the shut blinds only to drop his hand back down and make another trip around the room. When Phil had first opened the door Barton had spared him a glance and a quick jerk of his fingers in greeting and made no attempt at explaining his being there.

Unfazed really, Phil entered the room fully, shutting the door behind him and made his way over to his desk. He'd wait Barton out. He was getting pretty good at it.

Phil had been keeping an eye on the new recruit since he brought him in a month ago, keeping close by and making sure that his transition into the organization was a smooth one. Barton was difficult and mouthy and tended to rub people the wrong way with his odd jokes and blunt way of speaking, but Phil wasn't bothered by it and made a point to let that fact be known to the other Agents. If Agent Coulson could handle Clint Barton then they damn well could too.

"Needed a change of scenery," Barton spoke after another fifteen minutes of his pacing and their continued silence.

Phil smiled to himself and hummed in acknowledgement, shuffling through the papers he had brought in with him and waited to see if the Agent had more to share.

"This probation period is wearing me down and there's only so much I can handle of the other probies irritating chatter."

Phil didn't hold back his laugh at how absurd that statement was, coming from Barton. The Agent shot him a mock glare and blew a raspberry in Phil's direction.

"I mean, shit. Who cares about how crap the food is here? It's food! Eat it and shut up. I can't stand them, man. They're all so young and green and none of them like me anyways. Hard to be around people who can't take a joke and fall over themselves when a senior Agent even breathes in their general direction."

Phil turned his desk chair a bit and watched as Barton started messing with the knickknacks that he kept on the shelves along the wall behind his desk. "You're just as green here as the rest of them but I don't see you tripping over anyone," Phil said and Barton ducked his head slightly and turned away from the shelf.

"Eh, I'm not easily impressed," Barton replied quietly, not sounding very sincere. He started juggling a few of the larger marbles between his hands that he had snagged from the shelf. They had been a gift from Phil's nephew. He wasn't worried about them being damaged though, Phil trusted Barton's hand-eye coordination. The Agent continued on in a louder voice, "You know what I'm really not impressed with?"

Phil rose an eyebrow in question and folded his hands in his lap.

"The size of the agent quarters on base. You said when I joined SHIELD I'd have a better future with a roof over my head and food in my belly. You didn't say anything about my rooms being stuffy and windowless and that I'd slowly go insane every time I was in them."

Well, that was unexpected. Looking again to how restless the other man was, Phil really couldn't take his comment as the joke he wanted to pass it off as. From the past few months he's had to learn more about Barton, the first month tracking the young archer to assess whether it was worth SHIELD's time to bring him in and the second month overseeing his training within the facility, the more he's come to learn the man's habits and behavior patterns. Phil could say with relative certainty that he knew the man fairly well. He was more relaxed in open spaces and was truly at his best when he was up high where he could map out the space in his sights and track the people moving around him. Phil imagined that it made him feel safer; being able to observe from a distance and go relatively unnoticed. You can't get hurt if no one knows you're there.

So yes, Phil believed him when he joked about going crazy in his small room.

He didn't even stop to think about it before he offered Barton an option to fix his situation. "I could pull some strings and get you assigned to better quarters. I know the ones on the west side have windows."

Barton looked more than a little surprised by the offer. "What? No. No that-- You can't do that."

"Yes, I can." Phil really couldn't, it wasn't his department. But he _would_.

"Don't go pulling any of your little strings, Coulson," Barton said with both his hands raised like he was going to physically stop Phil even though he was still sitting down. "I'm already the black sheep here, don't go making it worse with your--" he waved his hand in the air in Coulson's direction and he took it to mean _Special Agent String-Pulling Powers._ It certainly wouldn't be favoritism on his part. It wouldn't. He just needed his Agent's on top of their game and not on the verge of a mental breakdown caused by cramped spaces and annoying teammates.

Seeing the truth in his protestations though, Phil didn't argue the point further. "Okay," he said pleasantly, trying to put his Agent at ease and went back to his work. Barton didn't need to know that he wasn't focusing on the work in front of him but thinking of all the ways one could move a bulk of residents from one location to another without suspicion.

"Okay," Barton said, nodding to himself, seeming satisfied with the other man's apparent backing down.

* * *

 

A week later Phil heard through the grape-vine that a section of rooms had been contaminated by a chemical leak through the vents from the labs below. When the residents were reassigned new living quarters, that just happened to be on the west side of the building and Clint's room just happened to be one of the ones affected, Barton didn't say anything. He simply made his way to Coulson's office and leaned on the door frame with his hands shoved in his pockets. Phil hummed in fake sympathy at hearing about the unfortunate chemical leak and the subsequent hassle of moving. Barton laughed down at this feet and shook his head and wrangled Coulson into helping him move his admittedly meager belongs into his new place.

After setting the stuffed-full duffel bag he had slung over his shoulder down onto the bed in the corner, Phil went to the window and pulled the shades up all the way and cracked the window. Barton came and stood by his elbow as they looked over the new view of the courtyard below. He heard the man take a deep breath in and Phil could practically feel the tension drain from him as he slowly let it back out. Phil smiled to himself and watched as a few birds chased each other around before settling in the tree down below.

* * *

 

Barton invited him over a few days later to show off his new trick of making a basket out the window and into the trash can next to the bench 6 floors below. He fist pumped the air when the ball of paper made it in and laughed when the person that had been sitting on said bench startled at the sudden appearance of trash.

And yeah, Phil was impressed and quietly pleased that his Agent was no longer on the verge of going crazy and shooting all the other junior agents with arrows the next time one of them started complaining about the mystery meat in the canteen.

And if a small purple colored bear with a t-shirt that read _Best Boss Ever_ on the front found its way onto one of the shelves behind his desk, Phil didn't mention it. The first day the bear had shown up Phil had gently picked it up from his spot next to the marbles and fingered the soft purple fur and chuckled quietly to himself. He needed to work on hiding his _Special Agent String-Pulling Powers_ better.

After that, Barton started rearranging things in the office each time he stopped by; placing the bear in new and interesting spots around the room. Today, Barton had placed the bear on Phil's desk and made him appear to be drinking the full cup of coffee the man had brought in with him.

Phil looked up from his papers to the little stuffed animal and then to his Agent by the window, who was busy drinking his own cup of coffee and watching Phil from behind the rim.

Phil just smiled and picked up the cup, patting the purple bear on the head in thanks.


End file.
